Internet of Things turns disruptive for IT business

Mumbai: Digital business, the Internet of Things and even the algorithmic business are a disruptive force in the growth of the IT industry. “The year 2016 was a period, where the focus of businesses is turning to digital business, the Internet of Things and even algorithmic business,” said John-David Lovelock, research, vice-president at Gartner. To fund these new initiatives, Mr Lovelock said many businesses are turning to cost optimisation efforts centering around the new digital alternatives. These include SaaS instead of software licenses, voice over LTE [VoLTE] instead of cellular and digital personal assistants instead of people, to save money, simplify operations and speed time to value.

“The huge opportunities thrown up by the new alternatives to traditional IT will fundamentally reshape what is bought, who buys it and how much will be spent,” he said. However, Gartner observed that the worldwide IT spending is forecast to be flat in 2016 reaching $3.41 trillion, up from last quarter’s forecast of negative 0.5 per cent growth. The change in the forecast is mainly due to currency fluctuations, it said in a statement.

“The current Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast assumes that the UK would not exit the European Union. With the UK’s exit, there will likely be an erosion in business confidence and price incr-eases which will impact the UK, Western Europe and worldwide IT spending,” said Mr Lovelock. He said that staff may be the largest immediate issue. The long-term uncertainty in work status will make the UK less attractive to new foreign workers while retaining current non-UK staff and having less access to qualified new hires from abroad will impair UK  IT departments.